The European Central Bank (ECB) has published issue 21 of its newsletter T2S Online which reports on the TARGET2-Securities (T2S) project.

In the newsletter the chairman of the T2S board, Marc Bayle, mentions in his editorial comment that despite some media reports suggesting otherwise, the T2S platform is less than two months away from being launched.

The T2S programme manager, Mehdi Manaa, reports that two months ahead of launch, the T2S community has reached the final stage of preparations. The central securities depositories (CSDs) and central banks involved in wave 1 started uploading their static data to the platform on 23 March 2015, a process known as the pre-migration phase. He also reports that progress has been made with user testing, as the wave 1 CSDs and central banks begin involving their clients in testing activities as of 2 March 2015. Mr Manaa states that the launch of T2S is the greatest challenge in this project and the final stage to go-live will require the utmost effort of the Eurosystem and the T2S community. As testing progresses problems will need to be addressed to ensure the smooth operation of T2S. Whilst every project entails some uncertainties and challenges until completion Mr Manaa is confident that with the continuous collaboration of the T2S community any remaining obstacles will be overcome before the launch.

The final two articles in the newsletter covers the countdown to T2S launch, the fifth T2S harmonisation progress report and introduces new members of the T2S board. In countdown to T2S launch it is noted that user testing and migration will not be the only hot topics in the last two months before the launch. The preparations for operations of the T2S platform as of 22 June 2015 are in the final stages.

View T2S Online No. 21, 13 May 2015